how can we misinterpret the intention of that mother bird? As long as the bird can't tell us her intention, I prefer to speak of instictive behavior. There is too high a risk of anthropomorphism otherwise. To me, this has nothing to do with value judgment.
I do not refute either of the definitions you quote. They are beautiful as such. The problems start when you try to apply them to concrete cases. Let's take person A, who donates $1000 to a charity. Person B, who likes A, considers this really altruistic, while C, who has a grudge against A, suspects that A has acted out of guilt from some earlier misdeed... You might object that A could have donated anonymously. But then the question of judging his/her altruism would never arise..